Vandals have their hands full with old rivals
BOISE – The Idaho-Boise State football rivalry is still a big deal – to the Vandals. Maybe not so big for the Broncos, who have been preoccupied this decade with WAC rival Fresno State, BCS foes, national rankings and bowl destinations.
It’s probably up to Idaho to elevate its game if this contest is to return to the stature it once held for both schools.
“It’s still a huge rivalry, maybe not with Boise State simply because we haven’t been very successful and it’s been one-sided,” Idaho coach Nick Holt said. “A lot of their players don’t know anything different than being very productive.
“We need to get it back to making it huge. We think it’s huge and important. I don’t know if it’s lost its luster. Hopefully we can get this thing going.”
The Vandals will take another stab at it today at 12:05 (PST), but they find themselves in familiar territory. Idaho (2-7 overall, 2-4 WAC) is a 32-point underdog against BSU (7-3, 5-1) at Bronco Stadium.
Regardless of the outcome, Idaho will post its sixth consecutive losing season. BSU, which has bowl ambitions but needs help to earn a fourth straight WAC title, has secured its eighth consecutive winning season. The Broncos are 61-12 in the 2000s, fourth-best nationally, behind Miami, Oklahoma and Texas.
“We’ve been everybody’s rival lately,” Broncos coach Dan Hawkins said. “In Georgia, the whole place was singing ‘overrated’ at us. Oregon State beat us on a last-second field goal and they stormed the field.”
The Vandals have dropped six straight to BSU, which owns a 30-game home winning streak in which only three games have been closer than double digits.
“More than anything we want to play to the best of our ability and see what happens,” Holt said.
Even that might not be enough against the Broncos, who don’t appear to be as potent as they’ve been the last three seasons. BSU could be in a bad mood after seeing its 31-game WAC winning streak end against Fresno State last week.
“We’ve had a couple new starters in the offensive line and this is the first year we’ve really operated with practically a new receiver corps,” Hawkins said. “Drisan (James) had the most snaps (in 2004), but normally we had a T.J. Acree or Tim Gilligan or Lou Fanucchi back, guys that have been entrenched in it. And we lost two defensive backs to the NFL.
“Nobody likes excuses and there are none in Division I football, but our guys are battling. At times we’ve looked stellar. The (Fresno State) game the other night there were times we just couldn’t make a play.”
The Vandals have shown some offensive spark of late with quarterback Steve Wichman passing for 832 yards and six touchdowns the last two games. However, he’s also been intercepted five times.
“He’s a tough kid, a good leader and he’s probably playing as well as the better guys in the league,” Hawkins said.
Idaho’s defense has been on a slide since a midseason win over Utah State. The Vandals’ last four opponents averaged 45.3 points and 478.8 yards.
“From this point (compared) to last year, they’re a lot more confident team,” Broncos quarterback Jared Zabransky said. “They’re doing the same stuff (on defense) they did last year, but they just look more comfortable with it.”
Notes
The Vandals are expected to start a senior-free offense again. Michael Harrington (vs. Washington State) and John Neddo (in the last two games) are the only seniors to start on offense this season. Neddo is out with a knee injury. … BSU didn’t punt in last year’s 65-7 win over the Vandals.